The Tigers huddle around Miguel Cabrera and shower him with non-alcoholic champagne while celebrating the AL Central Division title clinched Monday in Kansas City, Mo. / JULIAN H. GONZALEZ/DFP

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KANSAS CITY – Happily nursing a celebratory Corona, Mike Ilitch conceded there might have been a moment’s nervousness a couple weeks back.

“But I got a phone call,” Ilitch told me. “I’m not going to say who it was from. But he told me to hang in there. (The White Sox) were leading for quite a while, but he told me if you get one or two games in front of them, they’ll collapse. And it happened.”

The Tigers’ revelry after clinching the American League Central championship was as much relief as it was rejoicing.

In some respects, that made it sweeter.

“I think we might have spoiled ourselves as well as everyone else,” said a champagne-soaked Alex Avila with the requisite protruding victory cigar, “with how we won it last year. It wasn’t close and maybe you start to think that it’s easy when you should know that it’s incredibly hard. I think it’s good for us that we won it the way that we did.”

Back-to-Back.

When you’ve entered that realm of the repeat champion, the appreciation of the achievement increases, but the novelty of it subsides.

The Tigers partied for several hours in Oakland last year after they wrapped up the 2011 divisional title. Justin Verlander and Phil Coke tried out-crazying the other as they used the champagne-soaked protective plastic tarp on the floor as a makeshift Slip ‘n Slide. But Monday night’s affair in the visitors’ clubhouse at Kauffman Stadium barely hit the one hour mark before they stripped away the plastic protection covering the cubicles and started the body count of empty bottles of bubbly.

It’s the mark of a maturing champion. Never take for granted any title for as we all learned this season – nothing is ever fully guaranteed – but also never forget that this is merely a first step toward an even more fulfilling destination.

“Winning never gets old,” said Verlander, “and we should celebrate this because this was a challenging season for us on so many levels, with all the stops and starts.”

It was Verlander who coaxed Miguel Cabrera out of manager Jim Leyland’s office where he stayed while his teammates engaged in the long-accepted ritual of spraying one another with champagne. Cabrera must keep his distance from alcohol. He was quite happy basking in the joy of sharing this moment with his family in the skipper’s office.

Last year in Oakland, the players sectioned off a part of the clubhouse as alcohol-free for Cabrera’s sake. This time, the players insisted that only non-alcoholic sparkling wine would be used for dousing, in deference to not just Cabrera but also Delmon Young, who’s also recovering from alcohol dependency.

When they finally got Cabrera into the clubhouse, his teammates circled around him and gave him his own richly deserved championship shower as they chanted “MVP! MVP! MVP!”

“That was great,” Cabrera said afterward of the tribute. “This is a great team. It’s not just one guy. This means more to me than all the other stuff. We stayed together as a team and that’s why we won.”

Leyland got misty-eyed as he usually does on these occasions, giving thanks to not just those more than three million who went through the turnstiles at Comerica Park this season but especially those struggling economically who couldn’t afford to come to the games but lived and died through every twist of a crazy season.

He sat at his desk with his coaches, trying to answer text messages on a cell phone that must be more than 10 years old. Victor Martinez, who missed this entire season recovering from major knee surgery, sent a congratulatory message to his manager. But Leyland had difficulty answering it.

Why doesn’t the man get a more updated “smart” phone?

“Because I’m smart enough to know that I’m an old codger who’s not going to change,” he said.

The Tigers’ first back-to-back divisional championship in franchise history doesn’t lessen the drama of whether Leyland returns in 2013. His critics list that same stubbornness as the No. 1 reason why he shouldn’t return, regardless of how far the Tigers advance through the playoffs.

Ilitch declined to discuss Leyland’s future.

That they won the AL Central by three games instead of 13 doesn’t diminish the importance of Leyland’s steady stewardship, winning with a team that – though star-studded – had a much different personality without Martinez’s presence. They were more low-key and that perhaps fooled some into thinking they were disinterested.

“It was never a question of whether or not they had the fire inside them,” Leyland said. “I already knew that back in Lakeland. There was a quiet toughness about this team that maybe didn’t show itself like some people might have liked. But you saw how tough they were when the pressure was on and they played their best baseball of the season.”

Ilitch referred to it as “more spirit.”

“We’ve got more, well, I can’t say the word,” he said. “It begins with a B.”

No need to spell it out. We got it.

“We’ve got a good group,” he added. “It reminds me of some of my champion hockey teams. You can tell that they’re coming together. And maybe it happened a little later than you might have thought, but I’ve seen them come together.

“We’re not just playing great under pressure recently but we’re getting breaks. We’ve been getting breaks because we’ve been playing well. Things have been going our way and when you get that kind of momentum, it usually ends up pretty great for you.”

The man loves his stars.

Prince Fielder hugged him, thanking him for “bringing me back home.”

“There aren’t many words that fit what I’m feeling right now,” he said back in the clubhouse, wiping another champagne spray from his dreadlocks. “I can’t help but to think about celebrating a championship with the team that I grew up with and remembering those times taking batting practice at Tiger Stadium.”

Fielder and Cabrera posed for several pictures for family and teammates, backs pressed against each other, arms folded, faces beaming.

Back-to-Back.

It took them longer to get here than what most of us figured, but when the Tigers finally got there, they celebrated like they’ve been there before.